‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’ Casts Nathan Fillion as Wonder Man

James Gunn and Nathan Fillion have worked together on a number of projects from Slither to Super to the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Fillion has become the John Ratzenberger of the works of James Gunn. That collaboration is set to continue in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, which will bring Fillion back as a classic Marvel superhero.

A local Georgian took pictures of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 set outside in Atlanta, which is interesting in and of itself because Guardians of the Galaxy takes place in outer space and should have no need for a folksy Main Street set. But, Marvel is shooting a few days on location for, what we can see in these pictures, the “Simon Williams Film Festival”.

In the comics, Simon Williams is Wonder Man, a superhero with a fear of death who ultimately gave up the hero game to instead use his superpowers to star as an actor in Hollywood. If you look close at the fake movie posters, Williams has become successful as an actor and has starred in a number of movies, including a Steve Jobs-esque biopic about Tony Stark.

Because one of these movies is Tony Stark biopic, we can eliminate this scene as being some sort of flashback sequence to Peter Quill’s childhood on Earth (Peter was abducted in 1988 and never returned). If we assume Kurt Russell is playing Quill’s father, he too would have been long gone before this film festival would be taking place. So what is it?

It’s possible it’s a post-credits scene that’s just having some fun with an old, forgotten Marvel character (see: Howard the Duck). It’s also possible it’s some sort of dream sequence of Quill imagining what it would be like to have the traditional upbringing with his dad — they go share ice cream, play baseball, attend a film festival, etc. The theater has been mocked up to appear as if it’s in St. Charles, Missouri, Quill’s home state. Or, it could be something else entirely. If you’re a local Atlantian and have some intel, let us know.

UPDATE: Almost as quickly as we asked came this video of shooting taking place. Forget the notion of some dreamy father-son sequence. It’s clearly a shot of some type of space craft crash landing on Earth. Peter Quill returns home?